God’s Economy: recovered by Witness Lee, enjoyed by local churches

The Experience of God’s Economy

The Key to Enjoying Christ—Our Human Spirit

The way for us to breathe, drink, and eat Christ is to exercise our human spirit. All of the unsearchable riches of Christ (Ephesians 3:8) are now realized in the Spirit (John 16:15), and the Spirit has come to indwell our regenerated spirit (Romans 8:16; 2 Timothy 4:22).

The Lord Jesus alluded to the human spirit in John 7, when He called the thirsty ones to come to Him and drink. In verse 38 of that chapter, He prophesied,

He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water (emphasis added).

The “innermost being” mentioned by the Lord refers to the human spirit, where Christ as the living water now resides within us (2 Timothy 4:22) for our inward refreshment and enjoyment (Philemon 20).

Another key function of the human spirit is worship, as revealed in John 4. When the Lord met the sinful Samaritan woman by the well, she wanted to know the proper place to worship. His response to her revealed that the worship the Father seeks is not in a particular physical location, but rather, in the human spirit (v. 23). He then took the opportunity to unveil the key truth that

God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness. (v. 24)

By this response, the Lord pointed to the human spirit as the unique place and means for us to worship and contact God.

The Lord be with your spirit.
(2 Tim. 4:22a)

The apostle Paul encouraged his younger co-worker Timothy to cultivate the enjoyment of Christ in his spirit. In 1 Timothy 4:7 Paul charged him, “Exercise yourself unto godliness.” In 2 Timothy 1:6, he reminded Timothy, “Fan into flame the gift of God which is in you.” Both exercising unto godliness and fanning into flame the gift of God refer to the exercise of the human spirit. Significantly, in his final word to Timothy before his martyrdom, Paul again emphasized the importance of the human spirit: “The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you” (2 Timothy 4:22).

The Scripture points us to several practices that help us to exercise our spirit. Praying (Ephesians 6:18), singing (Ephesians 5:18-19), reading the Bible prayerfully (Ephesians 6:17-18), and calling on the name of the Lord (Romans 10:12-13) are all excellent ways to enjoy Christ in our spirit and thereby partake of God’s rich dispensing.

Regeneration | Breathing, Drinking, Eating
Our Human Spirit | Growth and Transformation